


Chronicle

by elistaire



Series: Highlander50 Prompt Response [3]
Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Gen, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-04
Updated: 2011-04-04
Packaged: 2017-10-17 13:59:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/177575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elistaire/pseuds/elistaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Duncan finds one of Tessa's old notebooks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chronicle

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Highlander 50 prompt challenge. Prompt: Chronicle

Finding the notebook was like a punch to the gut.

Nestled in amongst the cookbooks in the banker's box, it was perfectly inconspicuous. Duncan picked it up lightly by the edges, feeling that if he were to handle it too roughly that it might crumble to dust under his touch. Richie must have put it here, a while ago, when they were packing up. He wouldn't have paid attention to the difference between a cookbook and a sketchbook.

Duncan touched his fingertips to the cover, gathered his strength, and opened it.

The first page was blank, as usual. For some reason Tessa never could bring herself to use the very first page. But the following pages were filled with sketches and notes, appointments to be kept, a line of poetry here and there, a quote for inspiration. Tessa hadn’t kept a diary, but she did work her way through notebooks. Each current notebook kept handy for the odd moment of inspiration or for when the solution to a problem finally untangled itself in her thoughts.

Duncan skimmed the pages, smiling and remembering the good times, until the sketches suddenly stopped. Several blank pages still remained--unused and forever more to remain so. He ran his thumb over the final pencil sketch. It was breezily drawn, as if she'd intended to come back and finish it later, and captured the essence of the strong set of a man's shoulders. The man's head was barely traced in--unfinished, unimportant; it was his solid back and well-muscled shoulders that were the focus.

Duncan closed the notebook, not wanting to wet the pages.

Her other notebooks were safely tucked away in a storage locker along with a few other things of Tessa's that Duncan had kept. At the time it had been too raw and hurtful to have remembrances of her so close. The pain was still there, hardly dulled by the intervening months, but he didn't have the heart to put the notebook away with its fellows in the storage bin.

Duncan fished out the cookbook with the sought after recipe for _ropa vieja_ in it, and laid the notebook carefully back inside the box. He often had occasion to come looking for recipes. In a few weeks, or months, he'd find the notebook again.


End file.
